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A review by 8yalan8
The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
3.0
A science fiction classic, that I’ve found a bit harder to get myself into. The book is short, but it feels like it could have been even shorter and still deliver.
An alien (who is looks like a true human) has come to earth, and he is on a mission to design, manufacture and launch spaceships to return to his home planet. His home planet is devastated, and he is a chosen one to turn events to a better scenario. He has some advanced technology up his sleeve.
Themes of not fitting into society, loneliness, demotivation, self – pity are at hand. Themes seem timeless and important, but somehow thoughts and conclusions about society are applicable to the time the book was released. I expected to find more universal and timeless aspects in the story.
The book has a lot of focus on alcohol. This could be also related to the decade of that time, but there was such a huge focus on the alcohol, I kept thinking – why? If we have so much of this one aspect, it must be relevant to the story, everything is for a reason, and I struggled to put my finger on the “why?” question. I googled, and it seems that the author himself had a problem with drinking. No judgment here, but maybe that’s what fascinated him so much/he’s too obsessed with this, that it has transferred to the book content too much. It didn’t do anything relevant to the story and throwing it out of the story would have been beneficial.
The end of a book is abrupt and inconclusive. When I finished the book, it occurred to me that the beginning of a story, where the alien looks like a human (without normal explanation) sounds unconvincing, and the ending left me with kind of the same vibe. To be honest, I expected more. I adored “The queen’s gambit”, wanted to read more of W.Tevis work, but this one was a let down for me. Bumping up to 3 stars only because of the psychological aspect of a book.
An alien (who is looks like a true human) has come to earth, and he is on a mission to design, manufacture and launch spaceships to return to his home planet. His home planet is devastated, and he is a chosen one to turn events to a better scenario. He has some advanced technology up his sleeve.
Themes of not fitting into society, loneliness, demotivation, self – pity are at hand. Themes seem timeless and important, but somehow thoughts and conclusions about society are applicable to the time the book was released. I expected to find more universal and timeless aspects in the story.
The book has a lot of focus on alcohol. This could be also related to the decade of that time, but there was such a huge focus on the alcohol, I kept thinking – why? If we have so much of this one aspect, it must be relevant to the story, everything is for a reason, and I struggled to put my finger on the “why?” question. I googled, and it seems that the author himself had a problem with drinking. No judgment here, but maybe that’s what fascinated him so much/he’s too obsessed with this, that it has transferred to the book content too much. It didn’t do anything relevant to the story and throwing it out of the story would have been beneficial.
The end of a book is abrupt and inconclusive. When I finished the book, it occurred to me that the beginning of a story, where the alien looks like a human (without normal explanation) sounds unconvincing, and the ending left me with kind of the same vibe. To be honest, I expected more. I adored “The queen’s gambit”, wanted to read more of W.Tevis work, but this one was a let down for me. Bumping up to 3 stars only because of the psychological aspect of a book.